Protective garment



March 4, 1930. H NORTH PROTECTIVE emu! Filed Nov. 15. 19 28 2 Shoots-Sheet 1 NVENTOR WITNES SES ATTORNEYS March 4, 1930. H. A. NORTH ,PROTECTIVE GARMENT Filed Nov. 15. 1928 2 Shuts-Sheet 2 lNVENTOR .HTAJVOrZI'I/ WITNESSES ATTORNEYS Patented Mar. 4, 1930 l 1 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HERMAN A. NORTH, OF BOGOTA, NEW JERSEY PROTECTIVE GARMENT Application filed November 15, 1928. Serial No. 319,669.

This invention relates to protective gar- Figure 4 is an exaggerated view in section ments and I use this title not in the sense on the line H of Figure 2; that the garment is primarily designed to Figure 5is an exaggerated view in section protect the wearer but to prevent the theft on the line 55 of Figure 1. 5 of money or other valuables carried by the My improved garment 1 is made of any garment. suitable flexible material, and while I show My improved garment is designed to be the garment as having armholes 2 therein, so Worn by a messenger carrying money or valuthat it has somewhat the appearance of a vest, ables so that the money or valuables can be it is obviously within the scope of the invendistributed throughout the pockets or com tion to makethe garment of any form departments on the inner face of the garment, sired. I and the garment securely locked on the body The material of the garment must in itself of the user. be such that it is difficult and practically im- A further object is to provide a protective possible to cut or tear the material, and I garment which is in the nature of an immay employ a material having this desirable provement on my Patent No. 1,520,962, feature or I may employ some other material granted December 30, 1924. and protect the same by additional means or A further object is to provide a protective devices; for example, in the drawings I show garment with an improved arrangement of the material as carrying metal buttons or flaps that prevent any possibility of a thief rivets 3 which are secured in the material forcing his hand into the interior of the garand so closely associated as to make it quite ment and removing the contents of the pocklmpossible for any cutting of the garment ets or compartments therein. by an ordinary tool or means.

The primary use of this device is to prevent At the front of the garment I employ metal holdups, making it necessary to kidnap the plates 4 and 5, one plate having staples 6 messenger in order to secure the valuables he thereon and the other having openings 7 carries, as it is practically impossible for therein to receive the staples so that when the thieves to secure the valuables or remove the g rment is placed around the body padlocks garment from the wearer during the short 8 may be projected through the staples to setime which holdup men have in which to u e the garment on the user. so make a successful robbery. Furthermore, It s to be understood that the messenger the garment prevents any collusion between W111 not have any keys for the padlocks so the messenger and the thieves as it cannot h t he cannot remove the garment. The keys be removed by the messenger or any of the y eheld at the bank and at the place of t t th f removed b hi delivery or only at the latter place, if desired, With these and other objects in view, the the P d l g opened before the mesinvention consists in certain novel features S g 1S Sent pfi bank and then pp of construction and combinations and ar- Into Closed Posltlon the g m n is On rangements f t hi h i11 b more f 11 the messenger and he is about to return with hereinafter described and pointed out in the the money in the F F- 9 claims. As a means for permitting an ad ustment In the accompanying drawings of the" garment in accordance with the size Figure 1 is a plan View ki at the inner of the wearer or of the bulging of the pockets face of the garment, with the garment exof q i 9 of these Plates 5 yl tended and some of the covering flaps thrown ade in two sections hlng t g as o; b k dl dlcated in Figure 1, so that this plate may be Fi 2 i a perspective i h i th folded and the openings? in the sections will garment in use on the messenger; register when the plate is folded.

Figure 3 is an exaggerated view in section 9 represents a series of pockets, which may on the line 33 of Figure 1; be in any number, arranged in any suitable 108 manner and of any shape or material desired. These pockets are distributed throughout the interior of the garment both for distribution of the weight and also to make the garment more comfortable for the wearer.

In order to prevent a thief from slipping his hand into the garment, either from above or below, I provide an improved arrangement of flaps which will now be described. A flap, I0 is located at the lower edge of the garment and is folded inwardly and against the lowerpockets 9 and is provided with any desired number of strips 11 which extend upwardly. The flap 10 and the strips 11 are preferably provided with some means whereby they may be connected to the inner portion of the garment, and I have illustrated for this purpose snap fasteners, the flaps 10 and strips 11 having snap fastener members 12 which engage snap fastener members 13 on the pockets 9 and on the inner face of the garment.

Covering strips or flaps 14 are secured to the top and front edges of'the garment and are adapted to fold inwardly one upon the other and are also provided with snap fastener members 152 or other suitable fastening means co-operating with snap fastener members 13 inside of the garment to connect with and hold them in place.

Vhen the pockets are filled and the flaps and, strips 10, 11 and 14: are folded inwardly they will extend over the pockets and will prevent any opening or removal of the contents of the pockets by the insertion of a hand either at the top or bottom of the garment.

I do not of course'limit myself to the precise shape and arrangement of covering flaps and strips but it is a'preferred arrangement to have them so arranged that they extend over the pockets or covering flaps on the pockets and assist in holding the pockets or the CQVGI'? ing flaps in closed position in addition to preventing a thief from forcing his hand inside the garment and opening or removing the contents from the pockets.

All of the features of my ment have the same end in view, that is, to prevent a thief from securing the contents of any of the pockets either by removing the garment or by forcing his hand inside the garment. a

Various changes and alterations might be made in the general form of the parts described without departing from my invention and hence I do not limit myself to the precise details set forth but consider myself at liberty to make such changes and alterations as fairly fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A protective garment having compartments or pockets on its inner face, a covering flap extending upwardly from the bottom of the garment and removably connected to the inner face of the garment over certain of the improved garcompartments or pockets, and strips on said flaps extending upwardly and removably con nected to other of said compartments or pockets and to the garment.

2. A protective garment having compartments or pockets on its inner face, a covering flap extending upwardly from the bottom of i the garment and removably connected to the inner face'of the garment over certain of the compartments or pockets, strips on said flaps extending upwardly and removably connected to other of said compartments or pockets and to the garment, and other covering flaps and strips located at the upper and front edges of the garment and adapted to be removably connected to the inner face of the garment and cover the pockets or comp art-. ments therein.

3. A protective garment adapted to fit and be secured around the body of the wearer and having armholes therein, pockets on the inner face of the garment, and an upwardly extending flap located at the lower and inner p0.r-. tion of the garment and positioned over certain of the pockets whereby a hand cannot be forced upwardly inside of'the garment and have access'to the pockets.

' HERMAN A. NORTH. 

